(2) What are the values of Modernism that we see reflected across different fields, and how do they represent a departure from neoclassicism and the Enlightenment?

Modernism is a philosophy that lasted from late 19th century to late 20th century Western Europe and was applied to literature, art, music, philosophy, and science.

Two of the most famous people from this time were Sigmund Freud, the psychoanalyst, and Friedrich Nietzsche, the loopy philologist.

Both lived from the mid-late 1800s to the mid 1900s

Freud believed that people’s biggest desire in life was to satisfy their aggressiveness by taking it out on others.

He was not a religious man and thought that the sole purpose of religion was to glue peoples together.

However, Freud is perhaps most famous for his theory that dreams revealed the truth about people.

Nietzsche on the other hand was heavily influenced by contemporary progressive writers and coined the famous phrase “God is Dead” due to his belief that Christianity was essentially slavery and people should be free in their beliefs instead of chained to a fixed set of morals.

Modernism music by artists such as Igor Stravinsky and Arnold Schoenberg is to this day famous for its atonality, and literature by authors such as Kafka revolved around absurd realities.

In fact, Kafkaesque has become a real word that describes abnormal situations.

Visual art styles such as cubism and impressionism were invented.

About two generations (18th century) before Modernism came Neoclassicism, a philosophy that preached rules, order, and logic–essentially a re-emphasis of classical Greek and Roman values and culture.

Music took the sonata form and perfect examples of composers are Hayden and Mozart.

Literature appeared as essays, letters, fables, and satires

The French artist David painted the “Oath of the Horatii” where Roman soldiers took vows on their blades in a typical Roman Basilica, which sums up this period precisely.

Essentially, Modernism is the rebellious teenage child of Neoclassicism

(1) What arguments does Gladstone make in favor of Home Rule for Ireland?

During the 1800s, the overwhelmingly Catholic Ireland was ruled over by the Majorly Protestant England. While most political restrictions held over Ireland were lifted early in the century, Catholics were still required to pay a tax to the Protestant Church. William Gladstone, British Prime Minister, began protesting this unfair taxation in 1886, claiming that it was morally incorrect to subject the people in such a way. He also argued that Ireland would never accept British rule and rebel constantly unless the British would allow the Irish to govern themselves, but was quickly shut down. Despite his failure to free the Catholic Irish from all restrictions, he was praised as a statesman for pursuing the rights of others even when the odds were stacked against him. Continue reading →